James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I received representations to go and see them. I telephoned to say I would be arriving half an hour earlier than expected. On arrival, I had to wait for them to remove the barricades from the door in order to get into the house. They live this way because of the threat of crime in rural communities. There are fewer gardaí on the beat and elderly people are afraid in their homes. We have witnessed, time and again, elderly people being attacked in their homes. This situation is grossly unfair. No just society would allow this to happen. The Government should be called to order by everybody in the country.

Those who worked through the awful years to build this State are now, in their declining years, forced to worry on a daily basis about the cost of living, repairs to their homes and the frightening level of service charges. Years of plenty, when Champagne Charlie—